All Eyez On Me

As you all know, All Eyez On Me hit theaters last Friday. Most of the reviews I read about it were negative. I also saw social media post about the movie being garbage. There were a few people that liked the movie sprinkled in here and there. Well, I don’t let reviews stop me from seeing a movie. I take their praises or condemnation into consideration, but I need to see it for myself so I can form my own opinion.

So All Eyez On Me is a biopic about the legendary Tupac Shakur. Pac is in prison and is being interviewed, so the movie jumps back and forth between the past and the present. The movie is just a collection of some of the most notable headlines. It has a run time of 2hrs and 20mins. It’s like a Harry Potter movie in regards to the length, so be prepared. Go to the bathroom before or during the previews, and choose your snacks wisely!

A lot of the criticism I am seeing about this movie is that, 1. the audience wanted to learn more about Pac as a person, not the rapper (I guess go beyond the headlines), and 2. that some of the accounts were inaccurate depictions. If you are judging the movie on those two points, then I see why people thought the movie was garbage. It didn’t go beyond the surface of him, but was it suppose to? According to Jada, we know of at least one inaccuracy of events in the story. I’m sure there are more. Haven’t read about anyone else calling it out, but I wouldn’t be surprised. Sounds to me what the people were expecting was a documentary in movie form. I know a documentary is still a movie, what I mean by movie form is that it’s a factual account in the words of Pac himself, but told through a character. Am I making sense? That’s not what a biopic is from my understanding. Just to be clear, I googled the definition of biopic and documentary to make sure I understood the difference between the two to confirm what I was thinking.

Documentary – 1. Consisting of official pieces of written, printed, or other matter. 2. A movie or a television or radio program that provides a factual record or report.

Biopic – A film or televisionbiography,oftenwithfictionalizedscenes.

abbreviation for (biographical motion picture), is a film that dramatizes the life of a non-fictional or historically-based person or people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character’s real name is used.[2] They differ from films “based on a true story” or “historical drama films” in that they attempt to comprehensively tell a single person’s life story or at least the most historically important years of their lives.

Based on the definition of a Biopic, I think this movie was spot on. There are plenty of documentaries on Tupac that people can watch to get to know the side of him that wasn’t shown as much in All Eyez On Me. Not to mention the countless books about him. As far as Jada and whoever else who knew him, who are calling out the fictionalization of the film, I think they have every right to. They actually knew them, but I don’t think normal everyday folk can use the feelings of his actual acquaintances as fuel for their “this movie sucks because…” narrative. She at least said the acting was good! Which it was! Demetrius Shipp Jr. was an awesome! Everybody was, honestly. The mom had to grow on me though because in the beginning of the movie she was giving me 1800s slave vibes with the way she delivered her lines. She started sounding more like I would expect someone from whatever year the scene they were portraying, as the movie progressed. Basically, by the 90s, she no longer spoke like Harriet Tubman like she did in the 70s, Lol.

You know that hashtag “I left when Pac..” that was on insta and twitter? Where did that come from? I don’t get it. Did it start when 50 Cent said they had Pac using a iPhone 7 in the movie? I read some of the posts and all of them made references to something modern happening in the movie. Unless I missed something, I didn’t see anything like that. Everything appeared to be right for the time period. If y’all saw what sparked this , or any thing that was too modern to be in the movie, let me know.

So there you have it. I thought the movie was good! If you’re looking to learn things about him that you didn’t already know, you probably won’t like the movie. If you want to see some of the biggest Tupac headlines played out on screen, while jamming to some of his hits, you’ll probably like it.

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2 thoughts on “All Eyez On Me”

Great review, especially because you took the time to differentiate between a documentary​ and a biopic​. In doing so, I think you adequately set the stage for the rest of your review. Perhaps some others may not understand the difference between the two and, therefore, may be overly critical of an otherwise great movie.